1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a carrier for use in carrying items externally on a vehicle. One example of such a carrier is a cycle carrier, by means of which bicycles may be transported using a vehicle which is unable to accommodate the cycles inside it.
2. Description of Related Art
Traditionally, bicycles are carried in this manner on the roof of a vehicle within one or more racks which hold them upright. This is still a manner carrying favoured by professional cycling teams since it enables the bicycles to be carried “road ready” and therefore enables their deployment relatively rapidly. Such a carrying system, however, possess the disadvantage that the or each bicycle must be lifted on to the roof of the car and then secured in a manner which is sufficiently reliable to prevent the bicycle falling off as the car moves. These considerations are not apt to be problematic for professional cycling teams, where the bicycles are very light and the vehicles carrying them in the course of a race, travel on closed roads, and at relatively low speeds (compared to normal traffic circulation on motorways, for example).
For domestic use, however, an alternative kind of carrier has evolved which attaches typically to the rear of a vehicle and provides a rack which extends away from the vehicle, rearwardly, and from which cycles may then be suspended. Typically, carriers of this kind are retained on the vehicle by means of one or more retaining straps which pull against the edge of, for example, the edge of the vehicle boot of some other surface on the vehicle. Such carriers have the advantage that no special features are required on the vehicle in order to enable them to be used on it. The corollary to this, however, is that, in order to be generically useable on a wide variety of vehicles shapes and geometries, a user will have to undertake significant set-up activity and adjustment of the carrier in order to fix it to the vehicle.